Ardent Software Helps NASA Unlock Big Bang Mysteries

Ardent Software Inc. (Westboro, Mass., www.ardentsoftware.com) announced that its O2 Object Database Management System (ODBMS) will provide satellite control capability in an upcoming space research mission directed jointly by NASA and the Johns Hopkins University. The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite will conduct a three-year research mission aimed at helping scientists better understand the conditions that immediately followed the "Big Bang."

The FUSE satellite, which is the first NASA satellite to be developed entirely by a university and managed from a control center on its campus, will be operated through a control language based on Ardent’s O2 database.

Ardent Software’s O2 ODBMS provides an environment for the storage of data and generation of satellite control commandments. O2 is the foundation of the Satellite Command Language (SCL), a system developed by the Interface & Control System (ICS) to generate commands for both satellite navigation and the onboard telescope.

O2 and SCL enable the satellite to function with a greater deal of autonomy, ultimately reducing the number of people needed to operate the satellite ground control station. The FUSE satellite, scheduled for launch in early 1999, is part of NASA's Origins Program which in turn stems from the agency's Explorer Program initiated in 1958 to conduct research in space physics and astrophysics. -- Brian Ploskina, Assistant Editor